Lost Girl (Wolf Girl Series Book 2) Read online

  One by one, the crowd of people parted, craning their necks to stare at us, nostrils flaring. The room was ninety percent made up of dark fey with long, inky-black hair and sharp pointy ears. But I also spotted trolls, vampires, and a few witches. This was clearly some kind of black-market trading post that was open to all races… except for ours. Wolves stuck together mostly. Pack over everything else. I pulled the hood higher over my face and remembered my name was Jessica.

  Walsh boldly walked us through the crowd until I saw why there was crowd at all. In the center of the barn was a… fighting ring. A cage sat in the middle of the room and my stomach sank when I saw the dead form of a fey man lying in the center of it. A giant troll loomed over him, snarling, black blood dripping from his mouth.

  The crowd erupted into cheers just as a dark fey man in a sleek charcoal suit turned to look at us. His eyes flicked quickly from Walsh, to Sage, to me, before lingering on my wolf.

  He simply nodded his head to the back of the barn and then walked away.

  Walsh gave us a distressing look and we followed.

  This had to be Trip, and luring us into a back corner of the barn wasn’t my idea of safe and fun. We passed more cages, and I did spot a small lemur, causing a whimper to die in my throat. I’d always wanted a pet monkey. I told my mom when I was twelve that if she didn’t get me one, I’d run away. She didn’t get me one, and I never ran away, but dammit I’d wanted to. Now I realized the irony here, that a pet monkey would have been stolen from their parents and kept in a cage just like this one.

  When we reached the corner of the barn, the man opened a hidden door in the wall and stepped inside. Walsh hesitated a moment and gave me a look. It was a look that said, If we get jumped, I need you to be a badass and flex those freaky powers. I nodded. I didn’t yet know the full extent of my powers, but I could feel my wolf thrumming with anticipation. Walsh stepped through the door first and looked left and right quickly, before moving more fully inside. We followed him in and I left the door open for easy escape.

  The office was tiny, which was made all the more uncomfortable by the fact that the man at the desk lit up a giant cigar, puffing a few times before it started smoking. Behind him stood two giant troll-fey Ithaki. The two huge dudes stood over seven feet tall and had scars all over their faces. One of them who had a dyed purple mohawk had a seriously broken nose; it bulged and protruded oddly. They were ugly as sin, but looked like his most prized fighters.

  The man, Trip I assumed, had paper-thin white skin, peppered with black veins. His long dark hair hung halfway down his back and my gaze flew to his black-painted fingernails. This guy was like an emo goth dark fey. Quite a character.

  “What can I do for you fine wolves?” he purred.

  I didn’t like or trust him.

  “You Trip?” Walsh asked.

  The man just nodded, once.

  Walsh produced a small bag of gold coins, palming them and holding them out to Trip. “I need a horse and carriage or any other type of animal that can get me across the fey realm quickly.”

  Trip grinned and I tried not to wince at his yellow tobacco-stained teeth. He took the gold from Walsh, peeked inside the velvet bag and chuckled. “This isn’t enough for what you want.”

  Walsh growled. “That’s more than enough.”

  Trip stood, inhaling a deep drag of his cigar, and puffed it out in Walsh’s face. “Before the war, yes. But this morning I got an order from the dark fey king to deliver all of my riding animals and carriages to prepare for war.”

  Holy shit. Prepare for war? With us?

  I kept my face a mask of calm as Trip looked at me, gaze narrowing as he tried to peer inside of my pulled-up hood. “She looks a bit familiar,” he commented, and I had to refrain from lowering my head to hide because that would be shady.

  Walsh stepped in front of me, ignoring his comment.

  He pointed to the gold. “There must be something you can give me for this.”

  Trip sneered, looking Walsh up and down like he was a specimen. “What are four pretty little wolves doing so far from home anyway? Dodging the war?” His gaze turned skeptical.

  Had a full-on war broken out or just this little tiff with the vampires? Now I was nervous. I’d need to check in with Sawyer when I had time.

  Walsh nodded. “Can you help us?”

  He looked back at his two troll guards, who nodded. Turning back to face Walsh, he clasped his hands together. “I’ll give you one horse and buggy if you win your fight.”

  I saw Sage tighten next to me at the same time that I did.

  “Fight?” Sage growled.

  The man’s gaze snapped to hers and he grinned. “We haven’t had a female fighter in ages. Would love if—”

  “No.” Walsh’s command was laced with his wolf, and even though I wasn’t facing him, I knew his eyes would be yellow.

  Trip grinned as Walsh dropped his deer skin and pulled off his shirt, showcasing a lean, muscular back full of small scars.

  “I’ll fight. Then you give us the horse and carriage. Do I have your word?”

  Trip’s upper lip curled at that and I wondered if there was something to a fey giving you his word, because he seemed reluctant to do so.

  “If you win your fight, you have my word that you may leave with the horse and carriage I assign you.”

  Walsh looked at me and Sage. “Say it again and include them.”

  Trip chortled. “Smart boy. If you win your fight, you have my word that you may leave with these three lovely ladies and the horse and carriage I assign you.”

  Walsh nodded, seemingly satisfied with that and it took me a moment to realize the three ladies included my wolf. He thought she was a werewolf in wolf form. Good.

  I could tell from the look on Sage’s face that she wanted to beg Walsh not to fight, but she kept quiet as we left the office.

  “You can warm up over there.” Trip indicated to a corner of the room and we all followed his gaze. My stomach dropped when I noticed the wolf inside of the cage near a red foam practice mat. She was panting, licking at an injured paw and whimpering. I inhaled deeply and smelled a female Paladin wolf. She had an earthy smell, like Arrow, wolf shifter but also uniquely Paladin, I could smell the human on her too.

  There was no way we could leave her here.

  Walsh met my gaze and shook his head, knowing what I was thinking.

  “We’ll be taking her too. Name your price,” I told Trip as he turned to walk away. The Paladin wolf must have heard that, because her yellow eyes snapped up to meet mine and I held her gaze for a long moment.

  He spun on his heel and followed my line of sight to the Paladin wolf and then grinned. Those yellow stained teeth made me shudder.

  Walsh’s hand snaked out and gripped my upper arm. “No.”

  I met his yellow gaze. “Yes,” I growled.

  “She’s not one of us,” he snipped back to me, barely a whisper.

  I yanked my arm from his, feeling too conflicted to explain. “I’m not leaving without her. You saw how the Paladin man tried to save me after my fall. This is fucked up.” I pointed to the cage.

  Walsh’s face fell then, and he swallowed hard. There was a human in there, a shifter, not just an animal. He was there when I fell, he knew the Paladin man tried to help me.

  “That pretty thing will get me a fair price at market. She can birth future Ithaki,” Trip told us.

  What? They had an Ithaki breeding program? I shivered and my wolf peeled back her lips and snarled at the man.

  ‘Let me fight for her,’ my wolf said, and I nodded immediately.

  “My little sister here will fight you for her,” I said, gesturing to my wolf and figuring the sister thing made the most sense.

  Trip looked at me like I was insane, before he and his henchmen burst into laughter. “You think that little pup can stand against one of my fighters?”

  I opened my mouth to speak and Walsh growled, shutting me up. “We will fight doubles. M
e and the wolf against two of your strongest men. If we win, we get to leave with the horse, carriage, and the Paladin wolf.”

  Trips eyes glittered. “A doubles fight?” He looked at his guards, who nodded once.

  “The crowd will love it.” He rubbed his chin. “Alright, you have a deal. You have my word that if you win this fight, you, the ladies, and the Paladin wolf are free to go on my horse and carriage.”

  Walsh nodded and Trip turned and left just like that. When Trip was gone, Walsh rounded on me as Sage tucked in closer to my side. “Are you crazy? You probably just got us both killed. Now I’m going to have to fight two of them while protecting you!” he growled.

  I scowled at him. “Are you saying my wolf is useless?”

  She growled to let him know how much she resented that thought.

  He softened, his shoulders slumping. “No, but she’s not trained. Sage would have been a better bet, and all of your powers are tied up in your human form. This could be a total disaster.”

  I frowned. Was he right? I mean, I could walk through walls, but that wasn’t going to do me any good here. Not to mention it would get my special gifts outed.

  Sage gave me a sidelong glance. “Why on earth would you stick up for a Paladin wolf? They are responsible for the constant attacks on Wolf City and my family.”

  She didn’t even know about the curse. If she did, she would feel even worse about the Paladins, but I didn’t know those Paladins. I couldn’t lie any longer and I didn’t want to. They had the wrong idea about the Paladins and I wanted to set them straight.

  “Because I’m one of them. A Paladin.” I held my chin high as Sage’s eyes went wide and Walsh’s lips turned into a frown of confusion.

  Nothing like dropping a truth bomb right before a fight to your death.

  “Holy shit, your mom banged a Paladin!” Sage whisper-screamed.

  Eww, banged? I didn’t want to think of my mom and that word ever again. Something else to talk to my future therapist about. I quickly caught Walsh and Sage up to speed on everything about my mom’s affair with Run, and Sage was freaking out, while Walsh was eerily calm.

  “Walsh. He helped me. That old Paladin man who found me at the base of the mountain. You saw it.”

  He sighed, and the crowd cheered behind us. They must have just announced our fight.

  “I don’t know what I saw, okay.” He rubbed his forehead. “Look, we’ll take the wolf and let her go outside of town, but that’s it. She can’t go the entire way to the Witch Lands with us, I won’t allow it.”

  I nodded, grateful for anything he would give me.

  “And we will be taking the dragon too, right?” Sage gave him puppy dog eyes and popped out her bottom lip.

  He smirked. “Not on your life.”

  Then he looked back at me. “No offense. But do you even know how to fight as a wolf?”

  Ouch. Offense taken but… “Not really.”

  ‘I’ll rip out all of their throats before they can even blink,’ my wolf, my voice, said in my head, and I turned to her and raised one eyebrow.

  Okay… so she was confident.

  He gave a longsuffering sigh and pulled off his shirt once more, showcasing his muscles. “If you die, then Sawyer’s going to kill me.”

  “Then I won’t die,” I promised him, and my wolf nodded for good measure.

  Walsh knelt down and looked my wolf in the eyes before looking back up at me. “When I’m in wolf form, will I be talking to her or you or?”

  I chuckled. “Her, but also me. We’re one. Pretty much.” Okay, I think I just confused myself.

  Walsh frowned for a moment, but then nodded.

  “We’re ready!” Trip called from behind us as the crowd began to gather in a tight circle. There was a giant wad of money in Trip’s hand, colored bills I didn’t recognize, and golden coins.

  Walsh gave us his back as he dropped his pants and then his boxers and I looked away to give him privacy, but I noticed Sage’s gaze flick downward for a half second.

  I grinned and she turned to face me with red cheeks. “Shut up,” she mouthed.

  Walsh was on all fours now, his wolf staring mine down.

  ‘Demi?’ he asked.

  My attention went to my wolf and she nodded.

  ‘I’m ready,’ my wolf told him.

  He padded over to the fighting arena and I followed in wolf form.

  ‘We fight as a team. One unit.’ Walsh’s wolf’s voice was gruff and calculated. You could tell his head was already in the fight. My wolf nodded and he went on. ‘If I clamp down on one of their wrists, it means I’m going to pin him down so you can rip out his throat. Can you do that?’

  Fear surged through my human half, but my wolf was unfazed. ‘Yes,’ she replied simply.

  ‘If I go left, you go right. We need to keep their attention divided and take them down one by one.’

  Again my wolf nodded. I tapped into her feelings and was shocked to feel nothing. Not one ounce of fear. If anything she was… bloodthirsty. She looked at the cages holding the animals and I understood. She wanted revenge for this, for keeping all of the animals in cages, experimenting on them and selling them.

  The crowd grew louder as Walsh and my wolf approached and he stopped and looked at her. ‘I don’t know what powers your wolf has, but I don’t want to see them out there. If you show that you are anything but an ordinary werewolf, you’ll be in a cage. Got it?’

  I could feel rebellion rise up in my wolf, but she nodded.

  She respected Walsh and would listen to him.

  Trip grinned, opening the large fighter cage, and I let my gaze fall on the two giants inside of it. The same ones from the office. I took time to really appraise them now. They were massive, the size of a full-grown bear, but they were definitely Ithaki. Half troll and half… dark fey?

  My stomach tightened as I had a wild thought: what would happen if my wolf died? Would I die too? We were connected, but also apart, so I really had no idea and I didn’t want to find out now. We stepped into the large fifty-foot square cage and stood in front of the giant troll-fey Ithaki.

  “Place all final bets!” Trip shouted to the crowd as Walsh bared his lips and growled at the purple mohawk Ithaki.

  ‘You need to mentally psych them out. Show them you aren’t weak,’ Walsh coached my wolf.

  Without warning, she tipped her head back and let out the most spine-chilling howl I’d ever heard. It was deep and long and gut wrenching. Suddenly the Paladin in its cage right behind us howled back, and then Walsh joined in. Soon all of the animals in the room started to go nuts. Horses, monkeys, even the dragon all made agitated sounds and shook the doors of their cages.

  Trip’s face fell, marred with shock at the disruption my wolf’s howl had caused in his animals, and so did the two Ithaki’s.

  My wolf had some kind of effect on all of the animals… I could feel it. She had a connection to them.

  Whatever she’d done, it had worked to mentally psych out the two trolls. When the fight bell went off, they stood there stunned, staring at my wolf as Walsh burst into the air.

  ‘Get behind them and start tearing at their ankles,’ Walsh told my wolf.

  The troll-Ithaki went from staring at my wolf like idiots to craning their necks at the werewolf flying directly at their faces. The troll on the left was slightly taller and redheaded, while the one on the right had the purple mohawk and looked more fey-like. Walsh went for the redhead and I remembered his instructions.

  We attack as a team.

  I darted between the troll’s legs and went right for Red’s ankle as Walsh had commanded. Taking the back of his heel into my mouth, I clamped down until my teeth sank deep into warm flesh, and then tore my jaws away, yanking out tendons and muscle.

  A roar of pain filled the space and I stepped out of the way just in time for the Ithaki to fall forward in pain. He crashed against the mat, practically shaking the walls of the barn with his fall, lying helplessly on the ground a
s he held his ankle, which was bleeding a dark greenish black.

  Whoa. That was awesome—

  The crowd went wild.

  Thin rivulets of the greenish blood trickled onto the dirt-packed floor as the injured troll made a fist and aimed for me. I turned to run but was too slow. His knuckles crashed into my ribs and the wind knocked right out of me. I padded across the cage wheezing, trying to get a lungful of air.

  That bastard.

  Walsh was circling the redhead, taking nips of his flesh here and there, weakening him, when my wolf bared her teeth and charged forward to finish him off.

  ‘Look out!’ Walsh cried but it was too late. Giant fingers dug into my fur as I’d forgotten all about Mr. Mohawk. I was yanked up into the air by the skin of my back, and tight pain seared across my fur as my skin pulled taut.

  A howl ripped from my throat and the crowd went wild.

  My jaws snapped left and right but couldn’t reach the douchebag’s arm. I was like a little yipping chihuahua to this guy. He pulled me close to his face and inhaled. I was still too far to bite him though, so it only served to piss me off.

  “You smell like magic,” he cooed and I gulped. “What a tasty treat you will make.”

  My stomach sank as he opened his mouth, showcasing glistening pointed teeth, and started to shove me inside like he was eating a very large burrito.

  I blinked and suddenly I was watching the fight from my human perspective. Terror ripped through me as I saw that Walsh was locked in battle with the redheaded troll and my wolf was about to be eaten. Pressure built between my shoulders and inside my chest until I felt like I might burst.

  “No!” I shouted and thrust my hands out. An unseen force flew from my palms. I willed it to slam into the troll, to force him to drop my wolf.

  And it did.

  The troll’s eyes went wide as he was thrown back into the wall of the cage. One by one, his fingers lifted away from my wolf slowly as if he were fighting it. He grunted against the force, until finally my wolf was free and dropped to the ground. The air felt thick with my power, and I wasn’t the only one who’d noticed. Sage looked at me wide-eyed as the crowd started to murmur and look around for the cause of the magical force.